"Is everything resolved?" Tang Ying asked him.

“You can go and check it yourself!” Tang Ying’s companion replied.

“Not funny at all!” Tang Ying said.

After saying that, she strode forward and headed straight for the door.

"Just leave like that?" Zhao Zhilan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Your Highness, don't worry, no one will stop you!" Tang Ying's companion told her.

Zhao Zhilan, still somewhat doubtful, started walking towards the city gate.

The guards, the guards of Dongpango, stood still, all seemingly asleep, motionless.

When Zhao Zhilan stepped forward, she found that the guards were already dead.

The reason they were able to stand was that their bodies were pierced by spears, allowing them to stand upright in the mud.

"Without a sound, they're all dead!" Zhao Zhilan thought to herself. "Twenty? Thirty? Maybe more. All the guards at Dongpange's gate died silently in the night."

I looked up at the sky, and it was as black as the walls of Wuzhong City.

They headed south, away from the great lake, following a barely discernible country road through barren fields, and into a forest filled with streams.

At this moment, the sound of horses' hooves made Zhao Zhilan stop in her tracks.

Suddenly, she seemed to sense something was amiss.

There's movement behind us!

So she suddenly turned her head and looked in the direction she came from.

"The siege has begun?" she asked in surprise.

“Yes!” Tang Ying announced, “earlier than expected.”

The surrounding woods quieted down, and in the silence, she could hear their voices. Though far away, they were rapidly approaching: the sound of galloping horses, the clash of spears, swords, and armor, the muttering of warriors, and the sounds of laughter and curses rising and falling.

Time seemed to come and go, the sounds grew louder and louder, she heard more laughter and noise, someone giving orders. A horse was snorting. A man was cursing.

Finally, she saw him...

Although it was only for a moment, she knew without a doubt that it was him.

Even at this distance, Lin Mo's figure was still clearly visible; his armor was tinged with moonlight, and his crimson cloak had turned black. He wasn't wearing a helmet.

He appeared briefly, then vanished again.

A long procession followed behind him, including the ten silent Nightmare Cavalrymen, nearly a hundred Imperial Guards, and countless other cavalrymen.

"Your Highness, we'd better stay away from the battlefield to avoid stray arrows!" Tang Ying said.

Zhao Zhilan looked out at the woods. The night was silent, the moonlight poured down, shadows were everywhere, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves.

"Hiding in the woods would indeed be safe, but..."

"No, I want to see the Dongpango scum wiped out!"

"Okay!" Tang Ying didn't say anything more, and then silently stood in front of her.

Waaaaah!

The bugle call of the Great Xia Dynasty sounded!

A deep, resonant sound, filled with mourning, blends into the darkness.

Inside Wuzhong City, the enemy soldiers shouted loudly, and their horses kicked their hooves.

Zhao Zhilan found herself trembling all over. It was a terrifying sound, a horrifying sound, yet it contained a certain rhythm. For a moment, she even felt a pang of pity for the Dongpango soldiers in the city.

This is the sound of death, she thought.

Zhao Zhilan stood quietly in place, motionless. Tang Ying and the others surrounded her, but she simply watched silently.

Her heart was pounding wildly, once, twice, four times.

Because Tang Ying and her men killed all the city gate guards, the Great Xia cavalry could drive straight in without restraint.

They formed an endless, long line and began their charge.

As they burst forth from the city gates, in that fleeting moment of heartbeat, Zhao Zhilan saw moonlight spill onto the tips of her spears, like a thousand fireflies enveloped in silver flames, rushing towards the enemy forces of Dongpan.

Although she could not claim to have witnessed the battle, she could at least say that she heard about it.

The echoes reverberated, with the crackling of broken spears, the clashing of swords, and other sounds.

"Great Xia is mighty!"

Long live the Great Xia Dynasty!

"Long live the Regent!"

Zhao Zhilan stared intently at the battlefield. Horses galloped, their iron boots splashing through the shallow water, swords clashed against shields with dull thuds, steel clashed and scraped, arrows whistled, war drums thundered, and tens of thousands of horses cried out in alarm at the same time.

The soldiers of Dongpango either cursed loudly or begged for their lives. Some were spared death, while others could not escape their fate. Some survived, while others lost their lives.

The darkness seemed to impair hearing. Once, Zhao Zhilan thought she heard Lin Mo's voice, so clear it was as if he were standing right beside her, shouting, "Come with me, kill all these bastards, kill all these wretches!"

"A simple life?" Zhao Zhilan thought in surprise, "That's a new term!"

The sound gradually weakened and eventually subsided.

A few rays of red dawn appeared in the east, and the war seemed to have ended with the rising sun!

Zhao Zhilan looked towards the battlefield, and she saw Lin Mo again.

The Regent of Great Xia was no longer riding the original black horse, but a zebra stained with blood.